The Dawn Of The Scarlet Sun: wherein the ambiguous arcanist Voxel assembles an unlikely team of
"specialists"; a half-ogre former gladiator named Oarg, and a strange tiefling calling
himself Byragh. Voxel drives his unlikely
squad onward towards his own esoteric purpose; the acquistion of the
Shard of Greed.

GM Resources lists the various opponents and challenges the adventurers
will face in this adventure, including the fiendishly powerful succubus
Avalexi and her minions.

Session 1 (Magnimar Underbridge District)

In The Shadow Of The Irespan

Every city has it's darkside, and Magnimar's is literally
dark, the always-in-shadows district known as Underbridge hidden beneath
the ruined stub of the Giant's Bridge, the Irespan.

The poor soul Byragh has lived his entire short but brutal life here in
Underbridge. Merely trying to eke out an existence in the grimmest, poorest, and
meanest corner of Magnimar has hardened him into a wiry, rawboned, and furtive survivor.
But despite his best efforts to cloak his deformed fiendish body and to use his
strange powers of fire and darkness only when he absolutely must...still he has
drawn unwanted attention.

Unfortunately, after a small set to with some thuggish members of the especially
pitiful and vile Sczarni gang known as the Creepers,
Byragh was forced to use his powers to extricate himself and thus came to the gang's
full attention. The gang's leadership has decided that they want a person with such
potentially useful abilities on the payroll, working as an enforcer for the gang's
Fagin-like snatch-and-grab operation of rounding up unattended children for cheap
labor and worse. But Byragh's way is his own!

Byragh laid low as best he could, but though cramped...Underbridge is small...and
even Tieflings gotta eat. Thus the Creepers ran him to ground, trying to forage
for food scraps in a trash pit on the edge of the small market near the Gecko Spire.
Three of them boxed Byragh in and did their best to intimidate him, pushing him
back and forth and piling verbal abuse on his head, entreating him to come work
for them. He'd have money. People would fear him. No more picking through trash
piles for leavings. No more being a nobody.

Byragh had been bullied so very many times before and he did his best to allow himself
to be bullied again. But this time, the thugs just went to far, and when he would
not give in to their demands, they tried to capture and drag him off. Byragh's inner
anger and Fiendish Lineage asserted themselves,
and Byragh fought back. Knocking one of his attackers tail over tea cup, displaying
raw physicality at odds with his wiry stringy appearance, Byragh made his intentions
to not go quietly clearly known.

Cudgels, saps, and brass knuckles came out, and a fight erupted, with the Creepers
still trying to subdue and capture the angered Tiefling. But Byragh had other ideas.
Turning to the high trash heap he was hemmed against, Byragh focused his inner fire
and lit the pile up with Infernal Flames!

The Creepers, starting to realize they may have bitten off more than they could
chew, redoubled their attack, but Byragh proved to be bizarrely good at avoiding
their cuffs and strikes, deflecting, rolling with, and cringing away in such a manner
that he took no real harm. Byragh must have learned something about how to absorb
a blow from all the years of abuse. Though he's been spurned
by society, he is the stronger for it.

Then with springy strength Byragh simply up ended one of the thugs and tossed the
dirty Sczarni up onto the flaming trash pile. The oily fool had his hair slicked
with rancid hair tonic, which lit up like a wick, and the man was quickly screeching
in terrified agony. One of the other thugs exclaimed loudly and turned his attention
to pulling his buddy out of the fire.

The third thug was reinforced by two more Creepers who had been working the market
but were now involved. These two were more serious opponents than the bully boys
Byragh had been facing, and one of them...a woman archer...quickly launched an arrow
at Byragh that left a red grazing line across his shoulder. The other was a nimble
spinning little Halfling knife fighter, who quickly closed with Byragh and drove
the Tiefling back on his heels up the side of the still-burning trash heap. Byragh
managed to take the remaining mook into the flaming heap with him, but small blessing.

Off balance and dangerously close to his own conflagration, it looked pretty grim
for Byragh, but a new wrinkle unfolded. A deeply hooded man in sumptuous robes joined
the scene, and spoke some kind of magical word that shook the very air, and knocked
the female archer Creeper into the wall of the shack she was near, stunning the
archer and foiling the shot she had been lining up on Byragh.

The deadly Halfling launched himself through the intervening distance to mount an
energetic assault on this new threat, but the arcane interloper made a mystic gesture
and uttered another air-shocking syllable to deflect the Halfling's efforts with
a mystical shimmer.

The pain of his injuries fueled Byragh's resolve,
and maintaining his composure, he regained his footing and scrambled off the trash
heap and towards the market, ignoring the Creepers and intent on escape. For his
part the remaining of the three original thugs lurched out of the heap, smoldering,
and rolled around on the filthy ground trying to stifle any hot-spots in his clothing
before they could erupt into flame.

Observing this, the magic user dropped back as well to be nearer to Byragh's new
position. The archerette launched an arrow at the mage, but the robed man simply
gestured with a hand and the arrow re-routed itself and impacted the ground instead.

The man imperiously said "Heed me, Sczarni!
Flee now and we will not pursue. Stand your ground and my ally and I will
SHATTER YOUR BONES AND BURN YOU ALL! You have my
WORD on that!"

The very air shook with an inaudible but palpable echo from the man's words, oozing
power. The Sczarni, affected, retrieved their burned comrade and warily scrunched
backwards, away from the fight.

Turning to look at the now-confused Byragh, the man looked the Tiefling straight
in the eyes and said with a commanding, sumptuous voice, "BRAWG, I presume?"

"Burraahg", the Tiefling rasped back.

"Bur-og?", the mage uttered, trying his best.

"Burraahg!!!", the Tiefling rasped back.

"Yes...well...I'll work on it. I am Voxel. There are those who know my
interests in such matters and I heard of your existence some days past. I have been
seeking you since. I am pleased to finally make your acquaintance."

Byragh's instinct was to flee, slink away, hide. But there was something about the
man's voice that made Byragh want to hear more. He could feel the power, and some
part of him urged interest.

"Why you intirst'd in me?" the Tiefling rasped suspiciously.

"Because I have an endeavor before me that you are ideally suited to. I need your
help, essentially. And I will pay you handsomely for your troubles.", the man produced
a shiny golden orb...a thing Byragh had only rarely seen. Holding it forth, he offered
it to the disbelieving Tiefling. "Here; a retainer for your first day of service.
I will hand over another at the end of each day you assist me, and should we attain the
prize I seek before the week is out I shall pay you...oh...shall we say ten gold coins? Surely more
wealth than you have yet seen in your life thus far, eh?
Take it!"

Suspicious, but spurred by the man's commanding voice and manner, Byragh
stared at the shiny gold coin. It sounded good. Too good!

"What you want me do?" the Tiefling rasped suspiciously.

The mage's eyes briefly flashed "Whatever I tell you to!",
but he quickly reverted to charming and followed with, "...but don't worry, you
will not find the labor too onerous, and the rewards will be great. Serve me and
you will profit such as you have seldom imagined."

"My way is my own!" the Tiefling rasped defiantly.

But the mage was not deterred. "Those are true and wise words, my friend. And my
way is my own as well. But for a short time our ways can lay alongside each others
to our mutual benefit. We will gain much power, and further I can tell you much
about your nature, which I suspect remains something of a mystery to you. I promise
you, you will gain much in your service to me, though perhaps brief it may be."

And Byragh very clearly felt the urge for power, so often suppressed, rise up within
him again. And his hand snaked out carefully, and plucked the golden coin from the
mage's extended hand. "Ok", the Tiefling rasped, with finality.

"Capital. I hope neither of us will have cause to regret it. Now, come with me.
We shall leave this dismal place for the nonce. I have taken rooms nearby, but we
must get you presentable first. No offense but polite society will not appreciate
your finer qualities as I do, at least not if you are dressed as you are. And the
odor, of course. But worry not, for we will return to Underbridge soon enough. There
is something here I need, and you my new friend are going to get it for me. After
that...well...we'll wait and see how our partnership develops before we get into
'after that's'...."

And so saying the mage lead the fiendish Tiefling towards the city proper, away
from the dingy quarter that he'd not yet left in his short and brutal life thus
far. Dreams of power propelled them both.